Yuriko Aoki
Yuriko Aoki (Born March 11, 1990 in Tokyo, Japan), is a main supporting character and mangaka in Bakuman. She was the writer of Hideout Door, and working together with Takuro Nakai. She later worked alone with serializing her works A Time of Green Leaves and What God Gave Me.... The latter of which recently got cancelled. Appearence Aoki has short brownish blonde hair and honey-colored eyes. Aoki can be distinctively be seen with glasses when she reads and is easily identified by the iconic beautymark under her left eye and her soft, fashionable, and strongly feminine taste in clothing which usually consists of various skirts and cardigans/sweaters. Her appearance in the manga has slightly changed with her character development to a more traditionally motherly role in manga (enlarged breasts and kinder, softer eyes). Personality When she is first introduced, Aoki is presented as extremely haughty, judgmental, and dogmatic, similar to the later fully introduced Aiko Iwase, but as the story progresses, she undergoes enough character development to overcome her initial attitude (revealed to be caused by a distrust of men) and show a more tender, kinder, and more agreeable character. It isn't revealed until she begins talking to Akito Takagi that, in the beginning, she believed that men were unreliable and that, despite her previously pompous pride towards her romances, she had never dated. However, as the storyline progresses, Aoki develops a crush on Takagi and starts to trust men more. This is made most prominant when she swallows her pride to ask for help from Shinta Fukuda in order to properly draw panchira. She has also developed a romantic relationship with Kazuya Hiramura and became engaged to him. Aoki is also shown as being very innocent especially on matters of love. This is due to her inexperience with men. The first man that she could really trust was Takagi when they agreed to help each other understand the opposite sex for their respective mangas. It is also due to this innocence that she did not realize the awkwardness of admitting to having started to like Takagi after encouraging Takagi and Miyoshi on their planned marriage. In contrast, she is able to quickly figure out Iwase's feelings for Takagi after hearing them converse. Initially, Aoki was shown to be extremely stubborn especially about her manga stories. Her former editor, Aida, even said that she was a really challenger author to work with. Later on, after learning to respect her mangaka peers, she is shown to be more flexible as shown during her collaboration with Nakai for Hideout Door. Aoki is willing to learn from anyone if they have anything worthwhile to teach her as well as able to stand her ground and show an enormous amount of courage in tight situations as shown when she stands up to Nakai and tells him to hit her if he's really so angry at her in Chapter 129. History First introduced as the Story King that Moritaka was recommended to draw for, she is properly introduced when Nakai meets with Ashirogi Muto and he tells them that he will be drawing with that year's story king in order to get serialized. Aoki attends To-Oh University with Iwase, the same fictional and prestigious university that L and Light from Death Note attend together. Prior to working for Shonen Jump, Aoki worked as a mangaka for Margaret (even mentioning that she wished to go back to only drawing shoujo once more after her first series failed), explaining the strong shoujo style in her drawings that requires the help of many assistants to correct in order for her to continue writing for the shounen genre and attract more of the male audience to her stories. She currently works alone, both writing and drawing her stories without the help of a more talented artist, aside from her assistants. Hiramaru currently courts Aoki, but the relationship doesn't seem to be serious at the moment despite hints from the author that there is a possibility that the pair may become canon and the two are only at the level of tea friends. In chapter 159, upon hearing that Aoki's series is ending, Hiramaru asks her on a date to the amusement park, where he plans to propose on the ferris wheel. Though he initially does not ask, because of fear, he drags her back on to the ferris wheel, in an attempt to try again. When on the ferris wheel for the second time, Hiramaru strips, looking for the fifty-million yen ring that he apparently lost. Because of a slip-up in conversation, Hiramaru mentions a ring, the context of which which Aoki correctly infers to mean he is proposing, then telling him to do his best. Hiramaru then proposes, to which Aoki happily agrees. Aoki asks the worker if they can go again, and when on board, she explains that it was so they could ride calmly this time. When she points out Yoshida to Hiramaru, he immediately demands to get off, so he can talk, when they start arguing, Aoki, from a neutral viewpoint, suggests that they look for the ring, stating that it could be like a romantic drama. Upon hearing that the workers at the carnival found the ring, she is glad and they go and retrieve it. Summary Golden Future Cup She worked with Nakai on Hideout Door for the Golden Future Cup. She takes part in the meeting, held by Fukuda with Akito Takagi, Moritaka Mashiro, Eiji Niizuma, and Nakai, regarding Koogy's announcement about his manga. They read and were going to discuss each other's manga but Aoki refused, stating that her manga is the best. This leads to Niizuma stating his opinion on their mangas. He correctly predicts that two manga would tie for first and one would place third, referring to Kiyoshi Knight and Detective Trap as first and Hideout Door as third. This meeting forms the basis for what will become Team Fukuda. After New Years Party When Aoki announced that she would work with Makaino Koji, Nakai is heartbroken. She tells him that his drawings couldn't convey the world in Hideout Door. To prove his desire to work with her, he draws in front of her window after work, even during a snowstorm. She offers him an umbrella, admitting that it was her story and not his drawings that was the reason that Hideout Door wasn't serialized. She wants her story to be good enough for his drawings. Eventually, Hideout Door is serialized, and Aida becomes the pair's editor. Creator Strike When Detective Trap is put on hiatus due to Mashiro's hospitalization, Aoki is among the mangaka of Team Fukuda to go on a strike, adamantly holding her position while Nakai was more uncertain. Cancellation of Hideout Door Low rankings eventually caused Sasaki to remove Hideout Door ''and ''Detective Trap from serialization, commenting that he wants Nakai on another manga for his art and that he "couldn't care less about Aoki." Presented with this ending, Aoki states that she wants to end the manga in her own way, without trying to salvage Hideout Door. When presented with Nakai's confession of love for her over the phone, Aoki states that she cannot reciprocate his feelings. After her serialization of A Time of Green Leaves, she offers Nakai to be her assistant again, but his explicit deal to make her his girlfriend greatly offends her to the point of slapping him across the face. Aoki is among the mangaka to bid Nakai farewell after he moves back to the country. After the Love Fiesta She and Hiramaru go out for tea where she agrees to date him officially as long as he continues to write manga. Fall and Rise of Nakai While on the phone with Hiramaru, Aoki sees a drunk and miserable Nakai outside of her apartment, blaming her for his miseries after he's been fired from his manga assistant job working for Nanamine and living on the streets. This noise causes Hiramaru to overhear Nakai and he drives to her home to protect her. He arrives in his car in what is called a "cool" entrance by Nakai(But also Nataki says it was the only cool thing he could do in the scuffle), and as they begin to fight, Nakai tells him it's none of his business, which Hiramaru defends by hesitantingly saying that he was Aoki's "tea party friend" and that of course it did. Nakai claims he doesn't understand, but Hiramaru says that if she really has done something wrong to him that he would take full responsibilty for it. Nakai keeps on pushing him down, and Aoki becomes increasingly bothered by their fight, which mostly ends in Nakai's favor. When Fukuda and Ashirogi arrive to assist Hiramaru, Aoki witnesses Hiramaru's determination to protect her, and Nakai ardently blaming her for his miseries. In a blatent shonen moment, Aoki walks downstairs to Nakai and allows the obese man to hit her and release any pent-up anger towards her. She finds that Nakai found himself unable to hit her, him knowing that he is the one at fault. A while after, Hiramaru, realizing that Nakai and him both "suffer from their affections of Aoki," a comically emotional Hiramaru asks Nakai to be his assistant. Aoki is later discussed, again, as another part of Yoshida's plans to improve Hiramaru's manga and Nakai's lifestyle by encouraging them to work hard(And together) with an idea: He says that the possibility of Aoki marrying Hiramaru would cause a physically-improved Nakai(Another of Yoshida's plan) to meet Aoki's older sister at the rhetorical wedding, and that a relationship could spark between the two. It isn't clear if Yoshida made up the idea that Aoki has an older sister, but it's implied that she isn't real. Manga Hideout Door ''is about a boy who opens a door to the fairy world. He is then given a choice between choosing to gain the soul of a fairy and befriend them or die. As her art wasn't suited for a shonen audience at the time, she would only work on the story. ''A Time of Green Leaves was an ecchi manga in which she drew numerous panty shots, demonstrating a shift of her manga into the shonen demographic. The manga was later cancelled alongside Hiramaru's Otters 11, setting the Love Fiesta in motion. In the Love Fiesta, she took first place with her one shot What God Gave Me...; which expands to become her next series. This series is cancelled not long after, prompting Hiramaru to take her to the amusement park for his proposal. Trivia *Aoki enjoys Darjeeling tea, a fruity, floral, astringent black tea. *Aoki's specialization in romance manga, along with her experience and popularity with the series, draw a parallel to Kawashita Mizuki, mangaka of Ichigo 100%, Hatsukoi Limited, and Ane Doki. *Mashiro was once offered by Aida to be Aoki's partner. External Links Category:Female Characters Category:Bakuman Characters Category:Mangaka